U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,360 describes a light sensitive material containing a silver halide, a reducing agent, a polymerizable compound (vinyl monomer) and a silver diazotate. This mixture is reported to be stable (indeed it is said to be an advantage) until the material is exposed to light, and then heated, at which time the vinyl monomer is polymerized. U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,360 differs from the instant process as the instant process is not light catalyzed and a silver halide is not present.
C. Walling, Free Radical in Solution, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1957, pp. 518-519 and W. E. Bachmann and R. A. Hoffman, in R. Adams, Ed., Organic Reactions, Vol. II, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1944, pp. 226-230 speculate that aryldiazohydroxides, which are said to be in equilibrium with their sodium salts when in contact with sodium hydroxide, decompose readily at room temperature to give free radicals.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a method for the polymerization of selected vinyl compounds, to produce polymers useful as molding resins and coatings. In addition, when the instant process is used, the polymers thereby produced often have the unusual property of being able to induce the further polymerization of vinyl monomers, even if the "original" polymerization was completed before the additional vinyl monomer is added. This is advantageous to produce block copolymers, which themselves have useful properties (infra).